Month: April 2015

Veronica Hofman-Ortega, (www.FiberAnticsbyVeronica.com, guest blogger and Blank Quilting Corp and Studioe sales representative), is here today sharing several of her experiences with the wonderful mascots that can be found in quilt shops she visits. Does your local quilt shop have a mascot? If you think they don’t, ask! You might be surprised. Keep reading to see some adorable furry, and not so furry, mascots. Also learn how you can see your local quilt shop’s mascot shared on the blog and social media.

Schools have mascots. Sports teams have mascots. Remember Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam? Even breakfast cereals have mascots! So what about quilt shops? Does your local quilt shop (YLQS) have a mascot? A lot of them do.

The shop mascot garners quite the attention (and affection) from shoppers, visitors, kids, quilters and shop associates. Some mascots are four-legged furry friends [aka babies] of the shop owner, or sometimes a shop mascot can be a statue, stuffed animal or another character or lucky charm that a shop has adopted as part of its brand. These mascots have an important and often demanding job. They welcome visitors, direct shoppers to the “just arrived” fabrics and patterns, or promote an exciting new program or class the shop is offering. Sometimes, the “shop kitty” or “shop doggie” even supervises at the cutting table, assists at the checkout or stands guard over her/his favorite fabric or quilt on display.

This black-and-white sweetie is Jumper, the shop kitty at Stitchin’ Station in Lynnville, Tennessee. While I was at the shop (to snap up a couple yards from Elizabeth Isles’ exquisite new Natural Wonders collection), Jumper promptly introduced herself and decided she wanted her photo taken with this handsome Western Album quilt that Beverly McKee, the shop’s owner, made and had displayed in the shop.

Jack McKee, the resident long arm quilter, quilted stars, lassos and spurs on the quilt to compliment its western theme. Do you think Jumper and Jack had a tete-à-tete to discuss potential quilting designs prior to quilting? (Quite possible.)

Scrappy, a 4-foot otter, is one of the mascots at Little Blessings Quilt Shop in Crossville, Tennessee. Ask Julia Ranney, the owner, about Scrappy’s history. Dizzy Diva’s Fabric Shop in Knoxville, Tennessee, has its own little doggie-diva, Princess, who is always at the ready to announce customers.

Princess adores the Beach Party collection by Blank Quilting and also encourages donations to the Humane Society. The newest addition at Huntsville Sew and Vac in Huntsville, Alabama, is Izzy, Donna Cagle’s Yorkie who loves to romp in her shop’s spacious classroom. Other shop mascots I’ve met on my quilting travels are Maggie, Bella (who will play fetch until either you or she gets tired), Zoe, Sewphia, Rascal, a Squirrel nutcracker, and Sam the talking parrot.

Tell Us About Your Quilt Shop’s Mascot!

Whether you’re a newbie sewer, a veteran quilter, or an expert stash-enhancer who frequents her/his favorite fabric haunts—either local or when travelling—you’ve probably encountered a quilt shop mascot at one time or another. We want to see them! Whether you’re a shop frequenter or owner, send us a picture of your shop mascot. Below are the multiple ways you can share your photos.

Instagram: Share a photo and tag @studio_e_fabrics and @blankquiltingcorp

Facebook: Share a photo or post as a comment on the Studioe or Blank Quilting Facebook page.

Email: Email your photos to bqcmarketing@gmail.com

Be sure to include your name, the mascot’s name, and the name of the quilt shop where she/he reigns.

If you aren’t following Studioe or Blank on social media, click below to follow each channel.

O say can you see the newest patriotic line by Studioe called American Anthem? Red, white and blue, stars, stripes, flags and words, this line has it all. This line should be great for all the charity quilts supporting our amazing troops. Go U.S.A.!

Pepper Cory has done it again with her newest Brushstrokes line to complement her ever successful Peppered Cottons and Fancies. We are describing these as stripe-ish textures. 16 new colors make up this line. Fat quarter bundles will also be offered.

Elizabeth Isles is back with a follow up line to the “printed batik” look of Natural Wonders. This line is called By The Sea and it is gorgeous, featuring various sea creatures in a beautiful color story. You have to SEA (sic) it to believe it.

Diane Eichler is following up her ABC Safari line with a numbers line called Count With Me. Oh boy, are the kids going to love this! Special features of this line include a soft book. Like the By The Sea line from Elizabeth Isles, this line features sea themes.

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike. Enjoy The Ride is the newest line by Jennifer Brinley. Featuring bicycles and other fun stuff in a soft and colorful palette.

Hopefully by now everyone knows the newest Studioe star designer who created Cheeky Pumpkins. Dt-K Signature is back with a new line called Happy Camper. Enjoy the journey and take a ride through the country in this line filled with lots of different campers and stuff.

Heartsong is the newest line by Whimsies & Wishes. It features Tiffany Blue with lots of other complementary colors like black and grey. This line is truly striking.

Pippa Moon Studio is back with another Asian inspired line called Kimono Garden. Kimono Garden includes beautiful florals and other Asian styled motifs in lovely browns, grays and purples. This line coordinates really well with several of the Peppered Cotton solids.

Studioe has a new 108 inch quilt backing line. Needle and Thread is the name and it is comprised of many colored grounds with needles and thread flowing throughout. Don’t forget that we recently improved the construction of all the Studioe 108″ to 60×60.

Peek-A-Boo is the only 2 ply flannel line being introduced in May. This line is another by Diane Eichler and it is a super cute teddy bear line with the teddies playing peek-a-boo like this little character below.

Small talk by Studioe is the newest sewing/quilting line. It features all your quilting essentials in white, black and beige. This is going to be a quilt shop staple. Depending on how well this line sells will determine if it becomes a basic….my bet is on just that. This line was meant to work together with the Needle & Thread 108 inch quilt backs.

Last, but not least, Small Factory is back with Wings-N-Things. This line features many things that fly like owls, butterflies and birds. Created in a strong palette of dark and rich, almost fluorescent, purples, pinks and oranges.

That’s all she wrote. Hopefully, I piqued your interest. So come see us at the quilt market to see this all for yourself OR contact your sales rep for an appointment for Mid-May. Thanks for your time.

Congratulations Jessica Powers for winning our Peppered Cottons giveaway! Since you all loved the Peppered Cottons giveaway, we decided to give even more away! To enter this giveaway, all you must do is comment this post telling us what you would make with this fabric. You can also comment any link of this post on the Studioe Facebook page for an extra entry. Good luck and don’t forget to tell your friends!

*Contest ends May 1st at 8:00 am EST. Open to US residents only.*

If you aren’t already, be sure to follow us on social media for the latest updates on all things Studioe.

On my most recent visit to Utah, I had the pleasure of seeing what I expect will be like a quilter’s Shangri-La….a heaven and haven for quilters alike. This Shangri-La is the brainchild of Leesa Clark-Millerberg from Thimbles and Threads. Her outside the box thinking could be the start of an interesting new phenomenon…..the Quilter’s Lodge.This is a more or less a bed and breakfast for quilters.

To use an analogy, just think of all the amenities of a spa or bed and breakfast: massages, manicures, pedicures, facials, food, hair salon, etc. This state of the art high tech quilter’s lodge on the other hand will have: a quilt shop, a room for several long arms, classrooms and classes with projectors & big screens, sound systems, videos playing on large screen televisions, washing machines, 10 guest rooms, kitchens, a fireplace on every floor and sew (I couldn’t resist) much more.

This project is getting close to being completed, so I got to see it while it was under construction. I loved the different woods, (Pine, Fir, Hickory & Alder) that were chosen. They were really nice and will definitely help to create a real homey and lodgey feel.

I am sure the finished product is going to be just amazing. There was a lovely deck in the back of the lodge with some awesome views of Utah. Rumor has it that a hot tub is in the future plan. Another thing that I can’t forget to mention is that this place is handicapped accessible and elderly friendly. The building was designed to keep as many of the trees as possible, this includes a 120 year old apricot tree that still produces fruit. Yum!

This blog just touches on some of aspects of the lodge, but there is going to be sew (I did it again) much more. I expect this project will probably be completed around the summer, so make sure to check it out for yourself. I personally am going to try to book a room for the May 2016 quilt market. Maybe you should to!

Congratulations Lynn D. for winning the Pirouette giveaway! Today’s giveaway is certainly a favorite. Today we are giving away 18 x 21 quarter cuts of our Peppered Cottons! To enter this giveaway, all you must do is comment this post sharing what you would make with this fabric. You can also comment any link of this post on the Studioe Facebook page for an extra entry. Good luck and don’t forget to tell your friends!

*Contest ends April 24th at 8:00 am EST. Open to US residents only.*

If you aren’t already, be sure to follow on social media for the latest updates on all things Studioe.

Last week I had the pleasure of traveling to Utah and Arizona to go on sales calls with the sales reps in those territories. Like all my travels with sales reps, it was an enlightening learning experience. However, this blog isn’t about my sales visits, it is about the higher powers of luck. As most of my blog followers know, I am not the most religious person, but on this trip someone was watching over me and the stars aligned as best as they could under some bad circumstances.

Tuesday night, I arrived at the Salt Lake City Airport about two hours prior to my flight. I was hungry as always, so I decided to sit down at the bar of what looked to be a nicer restaurant…I am not big on fast food. This was the first bar/restaurant in the d/e terminal on the left side. The name is escaping me. I enjoyed a burger, fries and a beer and then went on my merry way to Phoenix. I arrived in Phoenix without a hiccup and one of my best friends from U of Michigan, who I hadn’t seen in years, picked me up. He took me to his lovely home in Scottsdale. I was fortunate to have had my own little room that they call the casita which means little house in Spanish. It had a bed, tv, refrigerator and a bathroom. All private for me and certainly better and cheaper (can you say free?) than any hotel that I stay at when I am on the road. I was exhausted, so after chatting with my friend and his beautiful family, I hit the hay. Something wasn’t feeling right and I ended up waking up at 330 am…the ouch begins. A couple grumbles of the stomach and bammo! Food poisoning! Yikes! Mommy! How much does it stink to be sick on the road and have no one to care for you? It happens to traveling sales reps all the time and now it hit me. No gory details, but here comes the luck under the circumstance.

It turned out that the customer we were to visit that day cancelled. One point for me. So I stayed in the casita all day, doing what I could to get this feeling to pass. My buddy’s wife brought me water, ginger ale and salt crackers. It was like having a private nurse. She is an angel. Imagine if I was in a hotel? I just can’t! Two more points for me. Now for the coup de gras, my buddy is a well respected gastroenterologist. Jackpot baby! He showed up with an IV bag at around 2 pm.

Are you kidding me? They don’t have that at the Courtyard Marriot. Nope! Not only that, but he didn’t even need a copay or have to do it for Obama (had to sneak that in). The IV was delicious and it was just what he doctor ordered. Outside of some aches and pains, I started to come back to life. Am I lucky or what? At times, it is better to be lucky than good…and this was one of those times…thanks to my good friend Dr. Lowe.

Congratulations to Janie McCombs for winning the Rush Hour giveaway! Today Studioe is giving away an 18 x 21 quarter cuts bundle of the Pirouette line. To enter to win, all you have to do is comment this post. You can also comment on any link of this post on the Studioe Facebook page for an extra entry.

*Contest ends April 17th at 8:00 am EST. Open to US residents only.*

If you aren’t already, be sure to follow us on all our social media outlets for the latest updates on all things Studioe.

When it comes to choosing a quilt pattern, do you find yourself revisiting the same pattern often? Recently on the Studioe Facebook page, we asked you to share your favorite pattern. Here’s what you shared:

Leslie Bower, “I recently discovered “Bright Hopes” which I made up in leftover bright pastels from my daughter’s 16th birthday quilt and leftover black fabric from my son’s college (Virginia Military Institute) quilt for my mother’s 89th birthday. Now when I look at fabric I envision what it would look like in the Bright Hopes pattern.”

Beth Sebastian, “Disappering 9 patch or log cabin.”

Joyce Carter, “Dresden Plate and 8 pointed Star.”

Jeannie Zimmerman, “I return to uneven stripes. 2 1/2″ wide stripes with uneven ends. So easy and so colorful. these would be great in your fabrics.”

Nancy Rothschild Bird, “I love Flying Geese.”

Cecilia Young, “Turning Twenty.”

Vicki Hill, “I like the disappearing 9 patch.”

Melissa Moore Levrets, “I am just beginning, but I can see how any variation of the flying geese would tempt me!”

Cath Hallsworth, “I have many favorite patterns, but these fabrics would be great in a disappearing hourglass or just about any pattern….the colors are so wonderful.”

I hope that you had a nice holiday weekend…whichever holiday you celebrated. I had a lovely family celebration with 29 great people. It is amazing how fast all the little ones are growing up…starting to make me feel old. Kind of makes you want to take a step back to take it all in, but who has time for that? Anyway, I am still pretty stuffed from all the delicious holiday foods. I am so full that my brain is struggling to come up with a blog subject for this week (another great excuse). In addition, I am exhausted from just writing my newest bi-weekly Food&Fabric blog (2 great excuses in one blog) that I write for The Blank Quilting Corp. website. If you have a chance, please go check it out as I have written two entries so far (the second one was just posted).

In any case, this week I am going to wimp out with an easy blog…easy for me. I wanted to take a moment to talk again about the Cheeky Pumpkins line by Dt-K Signature. I would love to take a victory lap and take all the credit for the success of this line. The problem is that I don’t deserve the credit. The credit should go to the stylist in our office, Karen Junquet, that works with Dt-K Signature as well as our supporting team. What a great job they did on this line! Also, I have to give credit to all of the sales people out there selling this line. You all did an awesome job. And, of course, how could I forget all the amazing customers that recognized how great of a line this is. I wish you all the same success that we had with this line. Outside of the Peppered Cottons and some of our other basics, this is the best selling line ever for Studioe. Cheeky is certainly setting the bar high for future lines!

Cheeky Pumpkins will start shipping soon. If you sell out quickly or need to reorder, I recommend that you do that fairly quickly as our second printing of this line is going much faster than I expected. We expect to ship the second printing later in May. I wanted to remind you about all the great free projects that we have for the Cheeky line. In fact, after we saw how well the line was doing, we decided to add a new free project. Please go check them out and make sure to use all of our free projects because they are a great resource for guidance on what to do with all our the different Studioe lines….and they are free.

Congratulations to Amy Warner for winning the Watermark giveaway! Today Studioe is giving away a bundle of the Rush Hour line. If you aren’t sure what to make with the fabric, Madame Samm’s post will certainly give you inspiration. To enter to win, all you have to do is comment this post. You can also comment any link of this post on the Studioe Fabrics Facebook page for an extra entry.

*Contest April 10th, 8:00 am EST. Open to US residents only.*

If you aren’t already, be sure to follow Studioe on all social media outlets for the latest updates on all things Studioe.